QVC owner Liberty Interactive buying Zulily in $2.3B deal

Liberty Interactive Corp. – owner of QVC – is buying online flash deal business Zulily (NASDAQ: ZU) in a deal valued at approximately $2.32 billion.

Zulily’s sales broke $1 billion last year, but since February 2014, the company has faced slow growth and declining share prices. CEO Darrel Cavens said the company may have overdone expanding product offerings, as customers now complain they cannot search the site as quickly as before.

The cash-and-stock deal would see Liberty pay $9.38 in cash and 0.31 shares of QVC (NASDAQ: QVCA) stock for each Zulily share. The price per share, valued at $18.75, is 49 percent above Zulily’s Friday closing price of $12.57.

The Seattle-based company’s stock jumped 45 percent to $18.22 at the market’s open Monday. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Read more from The Associated Press.